


The Blood of Liore

by wispwords



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Gen, Interlude
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-08-25
Packaged: 2018-08-10 21:30:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7861786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wispwords/pseuds/wispwords
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liore was breaking.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Blood of Liore

**Author's Note:**

> Hi AO3! This is... my first story here... and funnily enough, it's actually quite different from what the majority of stories I will post in the future will be like...
> 
> This story is intended as an interlude for what might have been going on in Liore right after Ed and Al left it. You may notice that the narrator is not someone mentioned in the anime... and that's because I made her up. I wrote this because I wanted to imagine what led to Liore breaking after Ed and Al thought they saved it. It's primarily inspired by the scene that introduces Envy, where he and Lust look over the burning city and discuss the homunculi's plans.
> 
> Also, Envy is my favorite character and I wanted an excuse to have another scene with that despicable piece of shit.
> 
> Please feel free to comment if you so desire, and I hope you enjoy! :)

Liore was breaking.

A town that only a sunrise before had been the peaceful, pious community of friends thriving off love for one another, now simmered a madness that trickled up in the little bubbles that came before the rolling boil.Fires that once lit a family hearth burned in torches clenched by fists.Rakes and shovels that sowed crop and nourishment were brandished high over squared shoulders.And voices that once cooed kindness and beat life into veins were now sharpened to splay those same veins open.The people bore their tools-turned-weapons on the brink, daring one another, waiting for someone to strike first.She had known Liore for eighteen years.But she had never, ever known it like this.

The pot wasn’t just going to boil over.It was going to explode.

“You heard his confession!Father Cornello is a fraud!How can you still hope to follow him?”

“No, Avel!It’s not true!It wasn’t real.This is all a military setup!”

“You heard it with your own ears, sister, and still you have faith?The man deceived us all.His miracles were no more than phony parlor tricks.He was using us!”

“How can you say that after all he has done for Liore?For our family?He blessed us when we had nothing, brought hope to our town!And now you are so quick to deny him because of rumors?”

Their voices amplified with every back-and-forth, and by now their argument had drawn a sizable crowd.This isn’t what Avel wanted.She didn’t want to fight with her sister.But she couldn’t let her loved one be so blind either.In a matter of one day, their whole world had fallen apart, the structure of everything they thought they knew and believed crumbled to a pile of lies, and yet somehow people could insist that a mound of rubble was still a church.The rabble in the courtyard was growing louder as others took up the same argument, some hollering scathing curses to Father Cornello, things only a short time earlier Avel would have considered blasphemous.Others maintained their faith and staked down in her sister’s camp.Even a black dog, stray in the streets and somehow not riled by the crowd, seemed intent on watching the chaos.It was Avel’s turn to speak, but she was running out of words.

“Please, sister, listen to me.”She wanted to speak softly, but the roar of their audience forced her to raise her voice.“We can’t let this tear us apart.All of us, we need to stick together and figure out what is going on.If we don’t, our town will burn!”

“We do need to stick together.Under Father Cornello and the Sun God Leto.He will guide us to salvation.”Her arm shot forward and she pointed a finger that could not stay steady at her sister.“You will lead us astray, Avel!The path you speak of is a path to damnation!”

She couldn’t stand it.She couldn’t stand all the faces, the burning eyes, the savage voices, or that stupid dog that still wouldn’t look away.But more than that, she couldn’t stand seeing the crack that fractured the town crawl in to break her sister as well.If Avel didn’t get away now, her own dam was going to flood.

She ran for a long time, down alleyways, behind buildings, a twisting path that was probably only a series of circles that never took her away from the sick town, the injured town, the town that hurt in every way and didn’t know how to heal itself.When her lungs couldn’t pump her body any further the sky was orange, though if it were by the dying light of Leto or the mob of wrathful torches, she did not know.The alley she settled in was empty; a vein only yet to atrophy.She was alone.

But she wasn’t alone for long.

Her breath had only just begun to settle, and the beads of sweat evaporate from her forehead, when a dark shape cut the beam of setting sun.It held an ominous shadow, black and grim-like on its four legs, and as it trotted closer she recognized the canine.Although she knew the stray dogs of her hometown to be docile, clarity of the animal did little to calm the thumping in her chest.Each slow, padded step it progressed on her sent a trickle of ice down her spine, a feeling she could only explain as a supernatural precognition from the God she no longer believed in.The dog drew nearer, and she knew the beast was coming for her.

It was difficult to discern how she knew it was a beast.Upon closer attention it might have been the deliberate way it stalked toward her, with no hesitance or animal curiosity, just a sure, calculated purpose.Closer yet the fur was too perfect, flawlessly silky for a dog that supposedly had no owner.But even those details only supported what she already knew, and as its massive form arrived to loom over her she could see that the real tell was something in its stare.Something that was almost human, yet at the same time, so very, very not.

The beast approached her, so close she could have reached out to pet it, but the thought of touching whatever that thing was scared her more than the fear of it biting her.Instinct moved her backwards, but the thing did not attack.It sat down, facing her head on, and when she looked back into its eyes—pupils searing red with more than reflected light—she would have sworn that it grinned.

“I know you’re not a dog,” she spoke to it, for as crazy as it seemed, something told her that talking was the only way to get away from it.“And clearly you’re not human either, so what are you?”

The dog tilted its head sideways, the first dog-like thing it had done since she first saw it, though its sudden canine semblance didn’t placate her.It had followed her here for a reason.Though she didn’t expect it to answer back.

And yet, she wasn’t surprised when it did.

“How perceptive of you,” the thing growled in a way no dog could.And then its grin widened.“Though don’t flatter yourself too much, I wasn’t trying very hard.What gave me away?Am I missing the puppy dog eyes?”

Avel’s gut seized at the sound of its words.A talking dog.No, not a dog.It was unbelievable.But today was a day for beliefs to be turned upside down.

“Who are you?” she demanded.

At first it only glared back at her, its expression becoming less and less canine with each passing second.Reticent, it studied her, not like it would a puzzle, but like it would a toy.Then, with another heinous grin, a red static crawled over its coat, and its body bulged as it rose onto its hind legs.Piece by piece, its form changed, and the one it settled on was one she knew well.

“I’m Father Cornello,” it proclaimed. 

It looked like him.By sight, it was a perfect replica.But the voice… the voice was so wrong, like its throat was built from rusted pipes that gargled sewage.

“You can’t be…” Avel stammered.“That can’t be true… I won’t ask again, tell me who you are!”

The thing that looked like Father Cornello narrowed its eyes.“That’s a brave tone, for a powerless human up against a homunculus.”

It named itself.So it truly wasn’t human.But exactly what kind of demon it was, she didn’t know.

“What is a homunculus?” she ventured.

It hummed a laugh.“Nothing you need be concerned about.It’s undoubtedly too complex for your ignorant mind to comprehend.”

Avel could feel a tremble making its way to her wrists, and she clenched her fists to hide it.She was in danger, she could feel it.All she could think to do was keep talking.“Have you been Father Cornello all this time?”

“Ha!Certainly not.I don’t think I could stand this old, lumpy form for more than a day.It’d be sickening.I prefer to run around in something a little more youthful…”Its body twisted, and as before it lit with a ruby lightning, until its form shrank into one that matched her own for size.The once rotund figure condensed into one of lean muscle, exposed by cropped black clothes, and as it writhed with self-indulgence into its final exhibition, raven hair sprouted from its crown and fell in wild wisps over an even wilder, maniacal face. 

The thing’s mouth spread wide over its teeth with glee in a smile that felt more wrong than a talking dog or impostor priest.

“It’s much more appealing, don’t you think?”The homunculus cocked its hip in a pose.

“It’s something.”

“What’s _really_ something was that argument in the courtyard back there.You two drew quite an audience.”

Why was it still humoring her?She didn’t know where it was going with this, or why it hadn’t attacked yet.She fought to keep her voice straight.“I saw you watching.”

“Well I didn’t want to miss anything good!Your sister was really losing her wits there near the end.She cried when you left.Started pulling out her own hair.But don’t worry, I followed her back to make sure she got home safe and sound.”

_Sister._

“You… What have you done to her?Have you hurt her?”

“Why?Do you still care about her?Because it sounded like she wouldn’t even blink before leaving you in the dust.Perhaps you should do the same.”

“No!I would never do that!”Her eyes burned with tears, but she refused to release them.She could not let this monster win.She would not let it hurt the ones she loved.“I have to go to her…” she panted, her breath barely working.“I have to see if she’s okay…”

She made the decision in a split second and turned on her heel, ready to bolt back down the alley even if it meant the homunculus following on her tail.

“I really wouldn’t.”

Avel froze, but it was not the monster’s warning that stopped her.It was the sound of the gun whipping from its pocket.

She turned around slowly to face the eye of the pistol, careful not to flinch.The monster’s eyes tipped over it, steep with malign pleasure.

“Like I said, she’s home safe and sound.I have no need to lie about that.”

“Then what do you want?”

“I want you to play with us!You’ve already been doing so splendidly.That arguing is contagious, you know.Didn’t you see how quickly it spread through the crowd?Oh, and just wait until the good Father Cornello gives his next speech.”It brought its free hand to its chest and gazed up euphorically, insanely, as if to a round of applause.“It’s gonna be _great._ ”

Avel struggled to put it all together.It wanted her to _play with us._ Us, plural.So it wasn’t just this one.There was a group at work.And it wanted her people to fight.

“There is some kind of conspiracy going on, isn’t there?”

The monster said nothing, but its grin widened.

“Well you’re not going to get away with it!” Avel shouted, and she felt the helpless futility of her words.Why were they doing this?This was her town, her home, her family.Why did they want to hurt them?This couldn’t happen.She couldn’t let it.“The people here will see right through it.The blood of Liore is strong!”

The homunculus erupted into a cackle that curdled the bile in her stomach.“We’ve already gotten away with it!Your town is teetering.One more little kick, and it’ll plunge off the cliff into chaos.You’re right though, the blood of Liore _is_ valuable.Especially when it spills into the streets.It will carve itself into the land with the screams of human stupidity.”

The monster’s eyes quivered with elation as it drank in its own words.Avel’s neck was like knives as she swallowed, but she didn’t let herself cry.There had to be a way to stop them.Think. _Think._ _Why was it holding her here?_

“I’m not going to play into your little games,” she asserted.

“You don’t have a choice in the matter.I’m the one holding the gun.Not that I need one to kill someone as easy and pathetic as you.”

Now Avel found a grin, and her lips quivered as she flashed it.“You’re not going to kill me,” she realized.“You haven’t done it yet.We’re in a deserted alleyway and you’ve had a million chances.If you were going to kill me you would have done it by now.So that means you need me for something.”

She called its bluff, and she expected it to lose its poker face.For a moment, it did.The grin dropped, and very briefly Avel burned with a rush of confidence.But something wasn’t right with its frown.It was too low, too forced.Too fake.A frown that didn’t match the wide, deranged delight in its eyes.

The homunculus clapped a hand over its mouth, and it snickered. 

The sound was like glass grinding in teeth, and as its ecstasy expanded it reeled with peals of laughter that swallowed all the air in the alleyway. 

“You think you’re clever,” it said at last.“That’s almost cute.But you’re wrong.You’re nothing but a stupid, worthless human, who is of much more use dead than alive.”

Avel stood her ground, keeping her posture tall, challenging the monster.It wasn’t going to win that easily. _It was keeping her here for a reason._ “Then what are you waiting for?”

“Avel!Where are you?”The voice echoed in from the intersecting alley behind her, followed by the hustle of pounding footsteps.She whipped around instinctively at the call of her name.Her uncle was the first to appear from the corner of the building, his brow knotted and stained with sweat. 

“There you are.We’ve been looking everywhere for y—”

The sentenced stopped in his mouth as his eyes widened in horror, and during his hesitation four more of the courtyard crowd appeared from behind him.The feet stampeded in from other directions as well, but Avel didn’t turn to look.Her gaze was frozen on the terror in her uncle’s.

“Qayin…” he said, almost breathless, trembling.“W-what are you doing?Stop!”

Avel turned back around and the mouth of the gun licked her forehead, but the cold metal did not halt her as much as the new figure holding it did.The eyes.Something in them always stayed the same, and although she recognized the features down to the last freckle, she didn’t for a second believe that the person she was looking at behind the barrel of the gun was Qayin.

The homunculus smiled through her sister’s face.

“I was only waiting for an audience.”

_CHK CHK._

_POW._

The sound cut out before her vision did, chased away by the explosion of the gun.The end crawled near in slow motion after that, but it still arrived all too quickly.She had expected a fade to black, a dark fog to seep in from the corners of her sight, but as she hit the ground and lost everything, all she saw was thick, oozing red, and then nothing.


End file.
